The present disclosure relates to a toner container and an image forming apparatus to which the toner container is attachable and detachable.
In an electrographic image forming apparatus, an electrostatic latent image formed on an image carrier is developed into a toner image by a development device and then the toner image is transferred to a recording sheet to thereby carry out image forming. If the amount of the toner in the development device decreases below a predetermined amount, the toner is replenished from a toner container to the development device.
The toner container is formed with a discharge port from which the toner is discharged. By discharging the toner from the discharge port into a replenishment port provided at the development device, the toner is replenished to the development device. There may be a case in which the discharge port of the toner container or the replenishment port of the development device is opened or closed by a shutter member of a slide type.
There is an image forming apparatus provided with an attachable and detachable processing unit. The processing unit includes an image forming unit having a drum unit and a development unit, and an intermediate transferring belt. The drum unit has a photosensitive drum, a charging device and a cleaning device. The charging device and the cleaning device are disposed around the photosensitive drum. The development unit has a development device disposed close to the photosensitive drum. As downsizing of the image forming apparatus advances, a distance between the drum unit and the development unit also decreases; and in the case of a full-color image forming apparatus, a distance between the image forming units also decreases.
In addition, in order to correspond to such an image forming apparatus, a toner cartridge is sometimes used. The toner cartridge includes a replenishment toner container and a collection toner container which are integrally provided each other. The replenishment toner container is configured to store the toner to be replenished to the development unit. The collection toner container is configured to store the cleaned and collected toner. As described above, if the distance between the drum unit and the development unit or the distance between the image forming units decreases, the distance between the toner cartridges also decreases.
Accordingly, there is a need for the toner cartridge which is capable of replenishing the toner from the replenishment toner container to the development unit or collecting the toner from the drum unit into the collection toner container even in such a small space.